Post by @gamesdotgg

Sony has filed a response to a California class action lawsuit, and its central argument is that no reasonable consumer could ever have believed they owned a digital game. The lawsuit, filed in June 2026, claims Sony's PlayStation Store failed to clearly disclose that buying a digital game grants a licence rather than ownership, in violation of California's 2025 Digital Goods Law. Sony's response argues: "In the digital age, it is not plausible to allege that reasonable consumers believed they were obtaining 'ownership' of a digital game." To illustrate the point, Sony's lawyers used Resident Evil Requiem as an example, arguing that if one player truly owned the game after buying it, a second player would not have been able to purchase it afterwards. Sony also points to its Software Product Licensing Agreement, which states: "The Software is licensed to you, not sold." That line appears several hundred words into a document that runs to thousands of words. Section 10 of PlayStation's Terms of Service also explicitly states that words like "buy," "purchase," and "own" do not mean customers receive ownership of digital content. Coming off the back of Sony announcing the end of physical discs from 2028, the filing has done nothing to ease the ongoing backlash. #ps5 #playstation #psn #gamingnews #gaming